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Aeroplane horror stories

Australians love to travel. It’s in our blood, it’s a part of our collective psyche. So, we know that a good number of our readers will likely have an aeroplane horror story to regale us with. Be it an airsick stranger wedged alongside you on a long haul, or a jet nose dive that was on the nose, in no more than 350 words, tell us your aeroplane horror story for the chance to win $1,000.

Haven Answers

From the flood of brilliant entries received for our last Haven Win competition, it’s clear that a significant bunch of our readers are restored car aficionados! We say it every time, but this really was a tough one to pick – the standard of the entries were just exceptional and it was so much fun checking them all out! But congratulations go to our reader Rob on his $1,000 win, who also provided a great backstory to his restored 1965 VW Beetle, together with lots of amazing photos from over its 54 year life. Whether you’re into old cars or not, no one can deny that preserving these treasures is important and worthwhile.

Here’s Rob’s ripper yarn

“Like most air-cooled VW nuts I grew up in a family of well-worn in, smelly and noisy Beetles and Kombis. While all my mates were buying Toranas and Falcons for a first car, I could not wait to build the toughest, red 1965 VW Beetle my modest budget could afford. Unfortunately four weeks after completion, my much-beloved bug suddenly caught fire in a big way. All I could do was watch as my beautiful car burned beyond repair. I donated the remains to our family VW mechanic of 25 years and could not bear to think of starting again after putting so much effort into a four year build, only to be left with nothing. Roll forward 18 years later and the 1960 Guy Harding Targa Tasmania race-winning Beetle caught my eye as my idea of VW perfection, so I tore off to Brisbane to make it mine. Now, after years in storage the bug is back out and about in club racing and VW shows for others to enjoy, not to mention its born-again bug owner being back out there too!

In explanation of the old photos: the history behind my bug is the culmination of a late night drinking session in 1998, between two highly respected people in the Australian VW scene: Guy Harding and Matt Berry – who had the bright idea that they could build the first VW to successfully win any class of Targa Tasmania. They rescued a 1960 bug (originally delivered new to Bundaberg) from a paddock for $800 and went to work building what might be the most thoroughly engineered early Beetle in Australian history. The finished result was a 1600cc engine de-stroked to 1300cc, to enable a 9,000rpm redline and to qualify for racing in the ‘stock as from manufacturer category’ of the Targa Tasmania race. After many mishaps and near misses the bug won the 1300cc historic class on debut and wrote itself into the racing history books, only to be controversially disqualified the next day (still in dispute). Twenty years later the VW changed hands to its current owner – that’s me – who is restoring the bug to its former glory, so that the legend of our very own local Herbie – who took the world on and won – can live on!”

Any advice contained in this article is of a general nature only and does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. Therefore, before making any decision, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice with regard to those matters. Information in this article is correct as of the date of publication and is subject to change.